Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing isn't just for ELA teachers.  Not anymore!  All teachers are expected to be literacy teachers.  I don't care what you teach, if you look at your standards, they are chocked full of reading and writing skills.  As a result, today's student needs numerous opportunities to write for a variety of purposes.  Teachers, we need to become experts in providing those opportunities for our students.

There are many routine reading and writing activities that can be used across the curriculum.  The strategies I am going to share are classroom-proven to be successful and benefit your classroom. Remember, writing is thinking and it is our responsibility to get our students thinking.

Articles of the Week

For years, I failed to provide effective bell ringers.  Let me say, I am embarrassed to admit, in my early years of teaching I was guilty of quickly copying some mailbox printable and throwing it on the students desk.  I have seen the error of my ways and I repent from that terrible practice!    A good bell ringer should incorporate authentic reading and writing. One day, I stumbled across Articles of the Week and realized it was the answer to my bell ringer woes!  It a strategy developed by Kelly Gallagher that can be used for a variety of purposes, including building students prior knowledge and providing practice on different skills.  In my classroom, I use AOWs as a bell ringer to practice skills necessary for strong writing, such as using evidence to support a statement, summarizing, short response writing, and grammar practice. Students read the informational article on Monday, then answer questions for the week based on that article.  I have found AOWs to be an invaluable part of my classroom.  I strongly encourage you to give them a try in your classroom.  

A.C.E.

With the changes in how students are assessed, all students are expected to be articulate in their writing and incorporate evidence to support their answer. Let's be honest.  Some students are not very good at being articulate in their writing and using appropriate evidence...they struggle. So, what do we do: A.C.E.  It is a strategy designed to explicitly teach students how to write a short response. It provides sentence stems to give students a format to write their responses.  In 5th grade at my school, we use A.C.E. across the curriculum.  All teachers expect students to write in this format.  As a result, students have drastically improved in their ability to answer a short response question.  When we introduced A.C.E., students were allowed to use the A.C.E. helper for a quarter.  Now, it is no longer necessary.  A.C.E. has become how students at our school write when asked to give a short response. They start with restating the prompt to include their answer, provide up to three pieces of evidence to support their answer, and explain their answer.  If your students struggle with fully answering short response questions, then A.C.E. is your answer.

Journaling

My husband is a high school economics teacher.  I believe his journaling strategy is a prime example of what happens when you live with a high-strung wife who talks about the importance of authentic reading and writing in all subjects.  He developed this idea all alone and I absolutely love it!  The routine in his classroom is the same every day. When his students walk into the room they find an authentic text on their desk that will contribute to the conversations that day.  For his class, it may be Microsoft vs Apple or an excerpt from Time magazine's How Scarcity Contributes to Spending. Along with that are directions posted on the smartboard instructing them to either summarize or answer a short response question that goes with their article. Keep in mind, he had previously explicitly taught them to summarize and write short responses.  He takes his bell ringer as a daily grade.  Students quickly understand the expectation is to fully answer the prompt posted and they meet that expectation.  The benefits of journaling is two-fold.  First, it provides authentic reading and writing.  Second, it gives students knowledge about the topic they are going to discuss that day.  Jouraling is a win-win for any classroom.

Imagine what would happen if students had daily practice in all contents with reading and writing.  As teachers, I hope we take our responsibility seriously to provide these opportunities to them. There are so many more strategies out there to incorporate literacy in your classroom.  I encourage you to research the strategies that would best fit your teaching.  

Keep It, Change It, Junk It

How do students become better writers? They write!  It's not rocket science.  If you want your students to improve their writing, provide them with uninterrupted, daily writing experiences.  My students spend at least 30 minutes a day writing. I am proud of that fact.  

One of the skills we are practicing now is producing writing grounded in evidence.  Sound simple?  Absolutely not.  A large majority of todays' students struggle to support their writing with appropriate evidence.  Therefore, students must be explicitly taught how to gather and use evidence in their writing.  Then, they must be taught how to evaluate if they have achieved that.

One day, while my students and I were analyzing our evidence, one of my students suggested we use a strategy one of his past teachers used: "Keep It, Junk It".  This teacher had shared her strategy for writing a summary at a school PD we had earlier this school year, so I was familiar with it.  However it didn't fit our need perfected, so I adapted it. "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" has become a strategy we use to revise our explanatory and opinion writing.

Keep It, Change It, Junk It

An effective explanatory or opinion essay isn't worth a hill of beans without well-chosen relevant evidence.  We must teach our student to produce writing grounded in evidence from literary and informational texts because evidence plays a key role.  I've taught my students to use "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" while revising.

Teach the Strategy

Student need to be explicitly taught new strategies.  "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" needs to be modeled by the teacher numerous times until the student is comfortable implementing it into their own writing toolbox.  I've created a powerpoint that is ready to go to help you teach this effective revision strategy to your students.  It has multiple practices, as well as an exit ticket.  You can access it here at Scribd.  You can access bookmarks here.

The Steps

The steps are easy to follow.  Model this strategy regularly with your students.  Encourage them to use it independently. You might conference with a group of students who would benefit from using this strategy in their writing.  

1. Identify the topic sentence.
2. Read the rest of the paragraph.
3. As you read each sentence decide to keep it, change it, or junk it.
4. If you decide to "Change It", make appropriate revisions to the sentence.  
5. If you decide to "Junk It", remove the sentence from the writing.

This strategy has the power to transform a student's writing. Giving students strategies to use during the revision process helps improve their writing.  This strategy can create independent students who can determine if their writing is grounded in evidence. Get the word out: "Keep It, Change It, Junk It" is a revision strategy we must teach our students!